1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to digital imaging technology. More specifically, the invention relates to digital cameras used with computer systems.
2. Description of Related Art
A digital camera is capable of capturing a photograph of surroundings to which it is pointed and generating a digital image (bitmap) which can then be downloaded to a computer system or the like. Therefore, a digital camera can be tethered to some port of the computer system, whereupon the computer system, using a display controller, outputs the bitmap from the camera to a display device (monitor) connected to the computer system.
The key to capturing and displaying a good quality image is to calibrate the camera to such a monitor so that two classes of potential distortions in the image are corrected. The first is distortion due to the components of the digital camera itself, such as the lens system or imaging sub-system. The second distortion may be due to peculiarities/resolution of the monitor and/or display controller. Traditionally, digital camera manufacturers have only attempted to correct for the distortion of camera components and have entirely ignored distortion on the monitor. But, these attempted corrections have only been improvements in the quality and features of the lens, lighting, shutter etc., such that, given cost constraints and target market, one digital camera may be of poorer quality than the other. Further, by ignoring monitor-class distortion, even high quality cameras yield results dependent entirely upon the monitor features and quality, which may adversely impact the final image displayed.
Thus, there is a need to programmably calibrate images generated by digital cameras to account for potential image distortions when displaying the images on a monitor. There is also a need to ensure that the calibration also accounts for distortions and reductions in image quality due to the imaging system of the digital camera itself.